The Holy Qur’an is an everlasting miracle for all times and places. Its gifts are ever-fresh and will never be exhausted. As the human intellect develops, it becomes more able to extract from the Holy Qur’an and its Sciences that which suits the scientific developments that it has reached during its time. It is a Book of Guidance which contains scientific indications that will not oppose the human intellect in any period of time.
This encyclopaedia is an attempt to contemplate upon the verses of the Book of Allah U in submission to His Command:
﴾أَفَلا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ أَمْ عَلَى قُلُوبٍ أَقْفَالُهَا﴿
“Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?” [Surah Muhammad: 24]
While at the same time, holding on to the guidance of our Prophet Muhammad r. For he was the one, upon whom the Qur’an was revealed. He had held on to it and acted upon it. Furthermore, he had been the walking Qur’an who had reflected it in his ways, life, behaviour, guidance, sayings, actions and knowledge which he had been tasked to deliver.
Thus, this scientific encyclopaedia is a brief attempt to pick up the gifts of the Qur’an that had not been exhausted during the period of revelation. These gifts are extended to all the other periods while embracing the development of the human intellect and the information obtained from new sciences. The main objective will be to understand the text via thinking, reason and contemplation; the acts Allah U has commanded us to do when he says:
﴾أَفَلَا يَعْقِلُونَ﴿ “Do they not reason?”;
﴾أَفَلَا يَتَفَكَّرُونَ﴿ “Do they not think?”;
﴾أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ﴿ “Do they not contemplate”;
﴾أَفَلَا يَنْظُرُونَ﴿ “Do they not see?”.
And Allah is the Possessor of Guidance.
AL-Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Abdul Sattar Assayed